5. Subnautica – Metacritic Score: 87
After your character crashes their spaceship on an alien planet, you explore one of its oceans, doing everything you can to survive. You’ll be faced with caves, stunning coral reefs, submarines, and threatening sea creatures as your adventure evolves. Subnautica follows the same structure as many other open-world survival games, but its depth (pun not intended) and interesting world give you so much to see and do that it’s elevated above the competition.
Critics have praised it for being more than a simple survival game – its story being a consistent surprise. The monsters that inhabit the sea can be terrifying and the crafting loop is so engaging that the exploration always feels fresh. Even after tens of hours, there’s still secrets to find, and that is something that very few games in the genre offer.
